Montreal's All-New Above Ground Metro

A cool project for the city.

When it comes to traffic in Montreal we always blame construction. But there's another cause we often ignore, the Canadian Pacific rail lines.

Have you ever been stuck in gridlock traffic and wondered why the entire city is heading in the same direction you are? The answer is simple, there are long railways that sometimes literally divide the city in half and there's usually only one or two streets you can take to cross over to the other side.

This is the case for the area near Rosemont-Petite-Patrie and the Plateau. Here, pedestrians are forced to actually cross the railway in order to reach Rosemont Metro. Some have even gotten some pretty hefty fines.

A project called Passerelle Des Possible has been submitted to fix this problem. The goal is to link the corners of Gaspé and Saint-Viateur with an above ground bridge so the metro can pass over the railway.

Even better, the bridge itself is going to be built out of old Metro cars. So this project will also give a second life to the MR-63 wagons.

This is just one of the projects that has been submitted to the city of Montreal. But the true advantage of this project is that it actually has a necessary function unlike the art gallery that's been proposed.